Location/Base of Operations: Arima, third planet from
the sun in the Alpha Centauri A star system (one of three stars in a trinary
system - see comments), Milky Way galaxy;
Arima had a "figure-of-eight" type orbit, tracing its path
between and around each of Alpha Centauri A & B (as represented by the symbol
on Dynorr's chest emblem);
when last seen, most of the planet's water supply had been
lost, and the formerly aquatic cities were devastated by flames caused by the
twins suns;
water formerly covered 95% of the planet's surface; gravity if 210% of
Earth's; atmosphere is 188% Earth's density

Powers/Abilities: Alpha Centaurians possess gills and
other adaptations enabling them to dwell beneath the sea.
Alpha Centaurians have two hearts; the second one starts when
the first stops.

They have built interstellar
ships of "intermediate capacity," able to attain 95% light
speed (see comments). Their technology includes Attrakton,
electro-probes, funnel-disks (able
to generate hyper-vortexes), infra-filters (which presumably filter out toxins
from other fluids/waters they siphon to their ships), "nerve-rending rays," able
to render unconscious Namor (recently underwater, but subsequently pulled
through a vacuum-like vortex), photonic plates, and
their viewscope.

Dynorr was strong enough to contend with
the underwater Namor, who possesses Class 100 strength. Namor soon overpowered
him, but Dynorr's bear hug made Namor groan in pain. In their own world's
fluids, Dynorr claimed to be far more powerful than Namor.
Dynorr also apparently wielded some sort of hand-blaster,
which fired a beam sufficient to blast Neptune's trident from Namor's hand. It's
vacuum weapon setting not only pulled the water away from him, but also the
water from his system, directly weakening him.
Dynorr either easily learned or enabled communication with
other languages via a translator or some other means.

Traits: All civilizations live underwater. Alpha Centaurians
are a feudal society, organized into small, interdependent kingdoms. The people
are generally self-centered and dispassionate survivalists (see comments).
They consider less technologically advanced societies to be savages.

History:
(Sub-Mariner I#18 (fb) - BTS) - For countless ages, the water
vapor of Alpha Centauri had been slowly escaping into space.
In more recent years, the process of dehydration had accelerated,
leaving its cities exposed to the burning rays of its twins suns
and its very civilization in danger of total annihilation. The
Alpha Centaurians devised funnel-disks to atomize the hydrogen-oxygen
liquids of other worlds and teleport them across the void of
space to replenish the fluid of their world. They began to send
out expeditions to planets with vast quantities of water and use
their funnel-disks to steal their water.

(Sub-Mariner I#17 (fb)) - Dynorr found many planets with the
water their world needed and led their far-flung raiders to such worlds, leaving
the once-lush worlds barren and and desolate.

(Thor I#335 (fb) - BTS) - An
unidentified apparent Alpha Centaurian, presumably an inhabitant of the scholarly
planet Rus, was pulled into the Runestaff when its new owner Kamo Tharnn
conjured improperly.

(Sub-Mariner I#18 (fb)) - On Earth, Dynorr
ambushed the Inhuman Triton, capturing him and bringing him
aboard their ship. Dynorr used some of his technology to
probe Triton's thoughts and learn Earth's languages, as well as of the existence
and amphibious
nature of Namor, possessing both functional lungs and girls

(Sub-Mariner I#17 (fb)) - On Earth, Dynorr contacted the
Atlantean/Homo mermanus Kormok, convincing him to aid the Alpha Centaurians'
efforts in exchange for "a high price."

(Sub-Mariner I#17) - Kormok sent Namor out to
undergo an Atlantean ritual and walked into a trap of Dynorr's
men. Namor escaped a snare sent by some of Dynorr's men only to
be attacked by Dynorr himself. Namor punched him down, but Dynorr
drained the fluid from around him, weakening him. Dynorr then
called for his ship to use the funnel-beam against Namor, who
recovered in time to stun Dynorr. The Alpha Centaurians summoned Dynorr back to
their ship via their Funnel-Beam.

Dynorr returned shortly
thereafter and ambushed Namor again in Antarctic Atlantis. Namor pummeled Dynorr into
submission and then walked away after checking to see that he had
no heartbeat. However, Namor did not realize that Alpha
Centaurians have two hearts, and that the second one starts when
the first stops. Dynorr then recovered and instructed his ship to activate the funnel-beam,
catching Namor unawares and pulling him up to the ship in space.

(Sub-Mariner I#18) - Electro-probing Namor,
Dynorr analyzed his functional gills and lungs,
the latter of which allowed him to breathe air from a gaseous
medium. The Alpha Centaurians hoped to learn from him how to
regenerate their own vestigial lungs, though they realized that it would take
many years to develop such a process; and, in the meantime, they still needed to
drain planetary volumes of water from worlds such as Earth to preserve their
world. However, after learning
that Triton was their prisoner as well, Namor helped him escape
his holding tank, and the two attacked their alien captors. They coerced Yennon
to lead them to their vortex weapon. The terrified Yennon complied, but perished
upon striking some deadly "ray," the existence of which he was unaware.

After locating and claiming his Neptune's
trident, Namor struck the ship's wall and
was cast out into space, but his constitution enabled him to
survive until he used the trident of Neptune to strike the funnel-disk, causing
it to release sufficient water to maintain his might until he could locate the
sectioned band that revolved around the ship's great hull, controlling the
funnel-disk, altering the position of the funnel-disk in hopes of preventing it
from draining the water from Earth; the disk actually reversed its
direction. As Triton fought back against the aliens, Namor began to fade in the
cold vacuum, Dynorr decided Namor must not perish before he had suffered for the
damage he had done to the craft, and ordered him to be summoned back onto their
craft. The Alpha Centaurians restrained Triton while Dynorr taunted the
exhausted Namor and then activated the funnel-disk. Dynorr did not realize
until too late that the funnel-diskt had actually been reversed, and Alpha
Centauri was instead drained dry, bursting into flames under the
heat of the sun.

Furious, the Alpha
Centaurians turned on Dynorr, and one of them blasted Dynorr, seeming slaying
him. Dynorr's seeming slayer
succeeded Dynorr as leader, but felt shame over his peoples' actions
against other worlds, and decided to let Namor and Triton go in peace.
However, as a result of energies to which he had been exposed,
Namor temporarily lost function in his gills and could no longer
breathe underwater.

(Thor I#335 (fb) - BTS) - After
retrieving the Runestaff following it having been taken by Hercules, Kamo Tharnn
attempted to use the Runestaff again, and its inhabitants, presumably including
the apparent Alpha Centaurian, were transferred into Tharnn himself.

(Thor I#335) - The Asgardian
goddess Sif used the Runestaff on Kamo Tharnn, freeing all those who had been
trapped within, including the apparent Alpha Centaurian.

(Maximum Security#1 - BTS) - Surviving, Dynorr may
have languished in a prison for years.

(Maximum Security#1 - BTS) - Dynorr was one
of the inmates beamed to Earth by the Intergalactic Council
during the events of Maximum Security.

(Maximum Security#1 - BTS) - Later, several of the extraterrestrials
who had been beamed to Earth joined with the heroes of Earth to fight Ronan
and the Kree/Ruul to break the barrier surrounding Earth.
Dynorr
may have been involved in this, but was not seen. He was most
likely extradited from Earth, but his subsequent fate is unknown.

Comments: Created by Roy Thomas, Marie Severin and Jay
Hawk.

Alpha Centauri...binary...trinary...

The two suns of
the Alpha Centaurians are clearly defined, referenced, and pictured in the
Sub-Mariner I#17-18 story. The original OHotMU: Appendix to Alien Races: Alpha Centaurians
entry identifies Arima as the third planet from
the sun in the Alpha Centauri A star system (one of three stars in a trinary
system); it further notes that the Alpha Centauri trinary
system boasts other worlds with intelligent life.
It's been nearly 25 years since I took astronomy in college,
and I am relying on astronomy sites' internet research and information from
others, so let me know if my information is off:

From what I can surmise, Alpha Centauri A & B are close together and form a
binary system, with the two stars being on average only slightly further
apart than Earth's sun and the planet Uranus (they apparently range b/t being
closer together than Saturn and the sun, and further apart than Neptune and
the sun). The third star in the system, Proxima Centauri, is more
distant from these two close stars, but is the closest star to Earth. Proxima
Centauri is close enough to Alpha Centauri (a binary star, Alpha Centauri A &
B), that the whole thing has been described as a trinary system. All
three stars are within the "southeastern" corner of the constellation
Centaurus.

Arima orbits both
Alpha Centauri A and B through a "figure-eight" orbit. Arima is the third
planet in Alpha Centauri A's orbit, and possibly Alpha Centauri B's as well,
but the latter part is unconfirmed. Arima was first identified in the
original OHotMU: Appendix to Alien Races: Alpha Centaurians entry

Until I read your
Alpha Centaurians profile I had no idea that their homeworld supposedly has a
figure-eight orbit around BOTH Alpha Centauri A and B. It looks a bit bizarre
but I believe that astronomers think that such an orbit is possible around
binary stars. However, such an orbit would be HIGHLY unstable and thus not
last long enough for intelligent life to evolve on the planet. Of course, it
could be argued that maybe realities 616 and 691 diverged BILLIONS of years
ago, back when the planetary disc was separating into planets, and so maybe
the planet Arima in Reality 691 only orbited Alpha Centauri A instead of
orbiting both the A and B stars as is the case in Reality-616.--Donald
Campbell--There's probably
some comic/sci-fi explanation that makes this orbit stable in this situation,
even if it's not the case in the real world/universe.--Snood

Alpha Centauri A and B are about 4.3
light-years from Earth, Proxima Centauri is 4.2 light years away, with the
three stars within a multiple star system. Beta Centauri is in the same
direction from the Earth in the night sky, but is about 350 light years away,
far away from Alpha Centauri A and B and Proxima Centauri.--Wolfram Bane

Many stars possess what is called a
Circumstellar Habitable Zone (CHZ), wherein a planet may orbit this star and
support Earth-type life on its surface. Any closer to the star and life would
burn or any further and life would freeze. The CMZ is based upon potentially
Earth-comparative life (i.e. the typical humanoid alien), but not necessarily
more exotic alien races, like nonhumanoids, metallic-based, etc. In other
words, the CMZ is the distance of a world from a star that a "typical"
humanoid alien race would develop.--Wolfram Bane

Alpha Centauri A has a CHZ of 1.252 AU
(116 million miles), Alpha Centauri has a CMZ of 0.678 AU (63 million miles),
and Proxima Centauri has a CMZ of 0.00745 AU (692 thousand miles). Thus
theoretically Arima orbits Alpha Centauri A at approximately 1.252 AU and
Alpha Centauri B at approximately 0.678 AU, and Centuri-Six orbits Proxima
Centauri at approximately 0.00745 AU.--Wolfram Bane

Transformers #1 (1984) indicates that
Cybertron, homeworld of the Autobots and Decepticons, circled the star Alpha
Centauri of of Reality-91274.--Wolfram Bane

In DC Comics, the world of Rann (adopted
homeworld of Adam Strange) orbited the star Alpha Centauri.--Wolfram Bane

Alpha Centauri B vs. Beta Centauri...home of the Centaurian
race

Beta Centauri is another (single) star in the Centaurus constellation, but is
much further distant from Earth than Alpha Centauri (325 light years away from
Earth, and should be distinguished from Alpha Centauri B.

According to the
original OHotMU: Appendix to Alien Races:
Centaurians entry, Centauri IV (home of the Centaurian race, i.e. Yondu Udonta
of the Guardians of the Galaxy) is the fourth planet in Beta Centauri.
However, Beta Centauri is 345 light years more distant from Earth than Alpha
Centauri. Even though it is an alternate reality, one would ASSume that
Reality-691 (timeline of the Guardians of the Galaxy...and Killraven)'s Vance
Astro's mission to travel to the nearest star would bring him to the Alpha
Centauri system (actually, the second and third closest stars; they clarified
somewhere in a text page in Marvel Presents that the actually closest star,
Proxima Centauri, was an anti-matter system, which wouldn't fit with the
Centurii of Centuri-Six being there, but that's an issue for another profile).
Further, in the Guardians of the Galaxy series, the inhabitants of that
reality's Arima were
transferred from their world (which Galactus was devouring) to "the nearest
world with an ocean," Centauri IV. For such a planet, orbiting Alpha Centauri
B seems much more logical than orbiting the distant Beta Centauri.

The
text pages are the Readers' Space letter columns in MARVEL PRESENTS #3 & 4,
the first two issues to feature the Guardians of the Galaxy. The text page in
issue #3 described the state of Earth and its four colonies in 3015 A.D. and
described the genetically-altered sub-species of humanity that had lived on
Mercury, Jupiter and Pluto before the Badoon wiped them out. Centauri-IV is
also mentioned as an Earth colony "on the fourth planet in orbit about the
nearest star, Alpha Centauri." The text page in issue #4 is an expanded
version of the capsule history of the Guardians' timeline which first appeared
in DEFENDERS #26. It is entitled "An Outline Course in World History 1975-3015
A.D. by Steve Gerber." The fourteenth paragraph reads as follows:
"The first terran starship, "Andromeda," was constructed in
2908, but perished on its maiden voyage, upon entering the Proxima Centauri
anti-matter star-system. It was in the year 2940 that the first successful
interstellar voyage was made - to Alpha Centauri - and the first terran
interstellar colony was founded on Centauri-IV, Yondu's native world."--Donald
Campbell

In
the very first Guardians story in Marvel Super-Heroes #18, the planet where
Major Astro met Yondu wasn't even named. In the next GotG story in Marvel
Two-in-One #5, Yondu was identified as a "native of Earth-colonized
Centauri-IV" while Major Astro said his voyage was to "Earth's nearest
interstellar neighbor." It was in the letters page of Defenders #29 that the
first mention of a connection between Centauri-IV and "Alpha Centauri" was
made. And finally, it was in Guardians of the Galaxy #25 that Centauri-IV was
definitively placed within the Alpha Centauri trinary system. Even then, it
was not specifically identified as orbiting the B star.--Donald Campbell--The information
from Defenders I#29 and Marvel Presents#3-4, both of which preceded the
original OHotMU make it clear that Centauri-IV orbits one of the Alpha
Centauri suns, and references to Beta Centauri are in error. My guess is that
they meant to make it orbit Alpha Centauri B in contrast to Arima and its
figure eight orbit, which they only defined as orbiting Alpha Centauri A. It's
an easy mistake to assume Beta Centauri is another name for Alpha Centauri
B...and that's what I think happened. Regardless, pretty clearcut errata in my
opinion.--Snood

On
the other hand, the idea that Centauri-IV was located within the Beta Centauri
star system was an error which first appeared in the original edition of the
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe...and has been perpetuated in every
edition since. Even the Annihilation: Nova Corps Files mostly just copied the
Centaurians entry from the earlier handbooks without correcting the
mistake.--Donald Campbell--Yep, neither I nor
the other handbook writers were aware of the discrepancies until I wrote this
profile, and further investigated the information.--Snood

In Reality-691's 31st century (the timeline of the
Guardians of the Galaxy), the entire population and kingdom of the Alpha Centaurians (known as the Alphans
in that reality) were transported to
Centauri IV by Guardians and Keeper to save them from Galactus; they shared the planet with
Centaurian race.--Donald
Campbell

The idea that Yondu's
race and Dynorr's race are both from the Alpha Centauri system seems
problematic. For one thing, since Centauri-IV presumably had its own oceans,
why wouldn't Dynorr have drained them first, before traveling to other star
systems? For another thing, it seems unlikely that Terran explorers would
reach Alpha Centauri and make contact with Yondu's people but not the Alpha
Centaurians. Maybe the Alphan population was so reduced by the devastation
that there were so few of them left that they could be overlooked? Judging by
Guardians of the Galaxy #25 (1992), it seems that the Alphan race was so much
reduced that the Keeper only had to transport one underwater city in order to
save the entire Alphan race. Or maybe the Alphans were just hiding from the
Terrans, fearful of a possible reprisal for what Dynorr had tried to do a
millennium earlier? The Badoon certainly seem to have missed them. Then again,
Dynorr and his people were from the 616 version of Alpha Centauri so maybe
events in the 691 reality unfolded differently. Maybe Arima-691 was not
subjected to as much dehydration as Arima-616 was and so the population was
able to survive without stealing water from other worlds?--Donald Campbell--To me, an alliance
or treaty between two nearby worlds is simple, reasonable, and a good enough
explanation for why the Alpha Centaurians would not have drained the water
from Centauri-IV. I'm sure there are numerous other explanations, but this one
certainly works. Also, the idea that there was only a single city of Alpha
Centaurians on the whole planet would be an easy explanation for why the
Badoon and Terrans missed them altogether.--Snood

If Samaya from
Annihilation prologue#1 is any indication, then her species has a much greater
knowledge of technology in the 21st Century than Yondu's people ever exhibited
in the 30th Century. Of course, they come from different realities, but maybe
the 21st Centaurians in both realities had the same level of tech and then
something happened in Reality 691.--Donald Campbell

Proxima Centauri...home of the Centurii?

Centuri-Six (home
of the Centurii race) is the sixth planet from the sun in the Proxima Centauri
system

The text page in
Marvel Presents #4, MARVEL PRESENTS #3 & 4, "An Outline Course in World
History 1975-3015 A.D. by Steve Gerber," states: "The first terran starship,
"Andromeda," was constructed in 2908, but perished on its maiden voyage, upon
entering the Proxima Centauri anti-matter star-system. --Donald Campbell

I believe that this
text page is the only place where the Proxima Centauri anti-matter star-system
is ever mentioned. As such, I don't know how "canon" it is. I also don't know
where Steve Gerber came up with the idea. He could have been inspired by some
science fiction story that he had previously read but if that's the case then
I don't have a clue what story that would be.--Donald Campbell

I don't accept the
idea that the "Centuri-Six" mentioned by one of the enslaved aliens in THOR
#258 must mean that that planet is orbiting Proxima Centauri. Even if the idea
that the PC system is composed of anti-matter is not canon, the spelling and
pronunciation of "Centuri" is different from that of "Centauri." I think this
was another case of the OHotMU writers grabbing at whatever info they could
find to fill in the missing data for all those alien races.--Donald Campbell

Certainly a questionable choice, but it's not a
mistake. The Proxima Centauri anti-matter notation seems like a fix to correct
previous notations that they traveled to Earth's nearest interstellar neighbor
and identified that as Alpha Centauri. The Beta Centauri thing seems like a
clear mistake, but the Proxima Centauri/Centuri is more a matter of
"apparently true until something else contradicts it - and something may. And
a 31st century alternate future Proxima Centauri being noted as an anti-matter
system does not mean that things weren't different in 21st century -616.--Snood

Other comments

The original OHotMU: Appendix to Alien Races: Alpha Centaurians
entry notes their ships can only reach 95% light speed. With Alpha Centauri
being 4.36 light years from Earth, it seems unlikely that Dynorr was leading the
Alpha Centaurians to planet after planet (with few planets in each star system
likely to hold significant volumes of water) with such limited capacity.
However, since they could teleport planetary volumes of water, it may be that
they could teleport their ships as well...or maybe the Alpha Centaurians are
particularly long-lived? Maybe they journeyed for 5-100 years between missions?

The original OHotMU: Appendix to Alien Races: Alpha Centaurians
entry describes them as self-centered and dispassionate survivalists, though it
would seem from the events of #18, that the Alpha Centaurians were driven to
this behavior by Dynorr...or, maybe the "old one" was more unique in his shame
for their actions.

The alien from Thor I#335 is not identified
as an Alpha Centaurian...it's just a face in the crowd. It is also distant and
not properly colored, so it could be something else. Still, it's got the
moustache-like deal continuing back and up to the pointed ears. Additionally, it's fairly clear that many of the aliens were
based on those from the original OHotMU appendix to alien races...though I
believe only 9 issues of that were out when Thor I#335 came out.

Their Attrakton is magnetic disk used to
collect someone or something brought aboard their ships by their Funnel-Beams.
When a foe was gathered by the Attrakton, he or she could be rendered
unconscious by their "nerve-rending rays."

Prior to activation of the Attrakton,
Infra-Filters were used to prevent unwanted mixture of alien waters with those
aboard their ships

It fired a beam sufficient to blast
Neptune's trident from Namor's hand. It's vacuum weapon setting not only pulled
the water away from a target, but also the water from Namor's system, directly
weakening him.

Used to analyze the internal structure of
organic beings, their readings could be beamed onto photonic plates for
visualization by the Alpha Centaurians.

It is unclear whether it was the
Electro-Probe or other means which rendered Namor unable to breathe underwater
by the time he was dispatched back to Earth. It is similarly unclear whether
this was done when Namor was being analyzed, or as he was returned aboard their
ship after altering the course of the funnel-disk.

Their funnel-disks atomize hydro-oxygen
liquids and teleport them across space to replace the waters evaporated from
Arima. The funnel-disks were launched from within their ships and were
controlled via sectioned bands revolving slowly about the ships' great hulls.

By thrusting Neptune's trident between the
ship's sectioned band's gleaming sections, Namor reversed one of their disks so
that when they activated it, the "water" was instead pulled from Arima to Earth
(?), destroying much of what remained of Arima's civilization.

Once Namor reversed the Funnel-Disk's
flow, draining and destroying Arima as a result, the old one, along with the
rest of the crew turned on Dynorr, seemingly executing him with a hand-held
blaster weapon. With Dynorr fallen, the old one spoke for the rest, noting that
while they could repair the damages they had done to countless worlds in the
name of survival, that Dynorr would never again lead them into dishonor.
Acknowledging it was Namor who had directly caused Arima's downfall, the old one
noted that the Alpha Centaurians were not barbarians, and that Namor and Triton
were free to go. They were returned to Earth by the ship's vortex beam.

He was referred to by Triton as "old one,"
but was otherwise unidentified.

Led by Dynorr to worlds he had found
possessing the water their world needed, they drained those worlds, leaving them
barren and desolate.

The ships were equipped with funnel-disks,
vortex beams (which could pull objects and beings to or from the ship from
orbital distances within water pulled through a vortex; they could similarly
project beams of water and transport objects and beings down to planets as
well), Attraktons, viewscopes, electro-probes, and photonic plates. The ships
could allegedly reach only 95% light speed.

(Thor I#335 (fb) - BTS) - An
unidentified apparent Alpha Centaurian, presumably an inhabitant of the scholarly
planet Rus, was pulled into the Runestaff when its new owner Kamo Tharnn
conjured improperly.

(Thor I#335 (fb) - BTS) - After
retrieving the Runestaff following it having been taken by Hercules, Kamo Tharnn
attempted to use the Runestaff again, and its inhabitants, presumably including
the apparent Alpha Centaurian, were transferred into Tharnn himself.

(Thor I#335) - The Asgardian
goddess Sif used the Runestaff on Kamo Tharnn, freeing all those who had been
trapped within, including the apparent Alpha Centaurian.

Seen in both warrior-like yellow garb and
scientist's robes, Yennon denounced Dynorr following his initial defeat by Namor,
but quickly begged for mercy upon Dynorr painfully squeezing his hand. He later
advised caution when Namor was held aboard their ship, considering Namor a
savage barbarian. After Namor and Triton broke free, Yennon quickly caved when
threatened by Triton, leading them to the funnel-disk, but apparently perished
upon being struck by a deadly ray apparently designed to prevent unwarranted
tampering with the disk.